OBITUARY Dianna Irene Shuster Wygant May 7, 1949 – December 14, 2018 On December 14, 2018, Dianna Irene Shuster passed away peacefully, surrounded by family and loved ones in San Francisco, California. A theatrical and opera director who served as the artistic director of San Jose Civic Light Opera / American Musical Theater of San Jose during its heyday in the ‘80s and ‘90s, Dianna was also a devoted open water swimmer who completed relay swims across Lake Tahoe as well as the Catalina, Santa Barbara, and English channels, and swam from Alcatraz Island to shore, sans wetsuit, 849 times. In addition, she was a loving wife, mother, sister, daughter and grandmother, whose passion, intellect, and irrepressible spirit will be dearly missed.
Dianna was born in Charleston, West Virginia, the oldest child of Phillip Schuster, originally of Ohio, and Margaret (Peggy) Drake of New Zealand. The family traveled widely in her early years – Dianna attended first grade in New Zealand — but most of Dianna’s childhood was spent in California’s Central Coast, where she acted in early plays with Pioneer Players and was a founding member – and the first female teammate – of the Atascadero High School swim team. In the summer of 1967 – also known as the Summer of Love – Dianna came to San Francisco to pursue a drama degree at San Francisco State University.
Here, she worked as a cocktail waitress and telephone operator, protested the Vietnam War, took innumerable dance classes, and met Bill Wygant in a theater class. Bill remembers that Dianna was in the habit of announcing her entry into a room by throwing her skirt over her head and singing a high C. “She thought it made her look like a flower; I thought she had nice legs,” Bill remembers, “These were both pretty interesting to me, so I asked her be my scene partner”. In 1974, they were married in their acting teacher’s back yard.
The next ten years included the birth of a daughter, Megan, and Dianna’s early work with San Jose Civic Light Opera; she was named the organization’s artistic director in 1983. Colleagues remember her as a collaborator who was equal parts generous and demanding; an egalitarian leader who would dance with crew members backstage; and a friend who mixed truly lethal Manhattans. Dianna’s 19-year tenure as artistic director included the organization’s transition from a community theater to professional arts organization, innumerable awards for the company, and several awards for her own artistic excellence – she personally received more than 100 combined awards from the Bay Area Critics’ Circle, Drammy, Robby, Ovation, and Dean Goodman Choice Awards, as well as a commendation from the mayor of San Jose for creative excellence in 2002.
Dianna also served as the executive director of San Francisco’s Pocket Opera, doubling the organization’s subscription base and making significant improvements to the company’s infrastructure and programming over her time there. As a freelance director at companies throughout the Bay Area, she was appreciated not only for her artistic work, but her commitment to mentoring the next generation of local artistic voices. In 2004, Dianna and her husband moved back to San Francisco to be closer to their beloved South End Rowing Club.
There, Dianna served as swimming commissioner (2013), was recognized as Pilot of the Year (2010) and was a charter member of the Alcatraz Secret Society. She and Bill traveled broadly, tying vacations to major swim crossings including a relay across the English Channel and swim treks along the coasts of Turkey, Croatia, and Greece. In the winter of 2017, she was about to depart on a swim around the Galapagos Islands when a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer required her to turn the determination, work ethic, and strong will that had served her so well in her artistic and swimming lives to a battle for her actual life.
While the cancer may have triumphed over Dianna’s body, as her fight drew to a close, it became increasingly obvious that the strength and perseverance which exemplified much of her life was driven by her indomitable spirit rather than a fallible physical shell. She is survived by her mother Peggy Schuster of Paso Robles; her husband Bill Wygant of San Francisco; daughter Megan (Dylan) and grandson Henry Spaulding of Sacramento; brother Gerald (Marilynn) Schuster of San Luis Obispo; sister Vivian (Alan) Cooper of Los Altos; and members of her artistic and swimming families too numerous to be named. A celebration of Dianna’s life will take place at the South End Rowing Club on January 19 at 11am.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial gifts in Dianna’s honor be made to Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (pancan.org).
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